Syracuse football is still trying to recruit a commit from Tennessee. Rivals.com national analyst Marshall Levenson reports that Ethan Utley, a 2025 four-star defensive lineman and a unanimous top-200 national prospect in his class, verbally committed to Tennessee, a member of the Southeastern Conference, in late March, but Syracuse football coaches are still pursuing him.
The 6-foot-4, 270-pound Utley had a final five appearance in the ‘Cuse, Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas earlier this spring.
Before he announced his commitment, Utley had visited all but the Orange of his finalists. I wasn’t too shocked when Utley chose the Volunteers because in-state Tennessee had been receiving some analyst buzz for him on recruiting websites prior to his decision.
But since making a verbal commitment to Tennessee in late March, two other suitors “have not let up in their pursuit,” according to a recent Levenson article.
They are SEC heavyweight Georgia, where Fran Brown, the head coach and top recruiter, most recently served as the defensive backs coach before moving to the Hill, and the ‘Cuse.
Syracuse football and 2025 four-star defensive end Ethan Utley are still in regular contact.
Utley is a talented rising senior at Nashville, Tennessee’s The Ensworth School. He has received over 40 offers from various high-major programs during his recruitment process.
Utley accepted a scholarship offer from the new Orange coaching staff on December 4th of last year. By the way, on that same day, Brown was formally introduced as the new head coach of Syracuse football by SU Athletics.
Here, I’ll make two statements. The fact that the ‘Cuse is still bringing in Utley is fantastic. And the Syracuse football staff needs to get Utley on the SU campus for a visit if they have any chance of convincing him to switch his verbal commitment from the Vols to Syracuse football.
Levenson notes, fairly, that Utley recently declared, “I’m all in,” with reference to his promise to Tennessee. The national analyst for Rivals.com continues, “Utley doesn’t expect the Dawgs to give up anytime soon because Georgia is his mother’s alma mater. He feels more than at ease with the Volunteers as of right now.”
Several recruiting websites rank Utley in the top 150 overall, in the top 20 among defensive linemen, and in the top three in Tennessee for the 2025 cycle.
As of this writing, the Orange’s 2025 class had at least 19 verbal commitments, and Rivals.com and the industry-generated 247Sports Composite both had Syracuse’s football cycle ranked in the top 10 nationally.
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